Salzburg International Summer Academy (Austria) > Open call

The Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1953 by Oskar Kokoschka as the "School of Vision", in Hohensalzburg Fortress, is the oldest of its kind in Europe.Every year, some 300 participants from more than 50 countries attend some 20 courses offered in two fixed locations:Hohensalzburg Fortress and the Kiefer quarry in Fürstenbrunn, as well as in further temporary spaces in the city of Salzburg. Well-known artists, curators and critics from all over the world offer courses focusing on topical questions of art production, as well as curatorial practice and writing about art.

Special features of participants' stay in Salzburg are the fantastic atmosphere in the locations, the outstanding quality of the teachers and the first-rate programme of events, which includes Lunch Talks, lectures and discussions on the history and theory of art, vernissages, city walks, etc. For many people, the Summer Academy provides a unique opportunity to devote themselves exclusively to reflecting on and producing art. Participants reassess their own roles as artists/curators/writers and the social function of their art production, also exploring possibilities for opening up new ways of bringing their work to public notice. This helps to form new networks, which often last a lifetime, and which are of immeasurable importance in the art world of today.

The Summer Academy is open to anyone interested. Some two-thirds of participants are professionals (artists and art students). All applicants submit to a process in which the teachers of the courses chosen decide on acceptance; however, the proportion of rejected applications is extremely small.

“Transgressing boundaries” is the motto of the 2018 course programme. 18 courses – 17 in Hohensalzburg Fortress and one in the Kiefer quarry in Fürstenbrunn – take diverse approaches to topical questions of art production, encompassing all media and going beyond them. Thus students may make their way from painting to sound (song), from performance to installation, from photography to film and video, or they may concentrate entirely on stone sculpture or miniature painting, or combine a number of artistic approaches in explorations culminating in a shared polyphonic city walk.